Daily Yellowstone journal., 1887-03-17
Thursday. March u. 1887.
RAILROAD HORRORS.

As startling Ia the frequency with
which railroad accidents, involving
wholesale destruc i'm Of life. have
lately recnrred as are the sccidents
horrible In their features. The Rio
holocaust, the Tiffin slaughter, the
Vernon. immolstion and now: this
shocking Ta,slity in Massachusetts,
have followed each other at intervals
Of few weeks. Beside there have
been many railway accidents within
the same period not quite rising to the
sanguinary dignity Of these four but
sufficiently horrible to suit the most
bloodthirsty. The aggregate loss Of
life by the four must have been nearly
or quite 100, and In every instance
death came in its most trying and
painful form, the individual suff'erings
being In some instances Of a character
TO quake humanity shudder. And
these occurrences are not by what the
law calls "tIe act Of God" or unavoid-
able accident. In every instance the
railroad companies areI amenable to
civil suit Tor damages and are mulcted
TO lively tune. But money consid.
Grafton does not cover the crime
against society nor recompense the
physical and mental sufferings eu-
dured by the killed, the bereaved and
the crippled. For any railroad officer
or employe to be punished in conse.
quence of one of these accidents /,
something almost unknown; IL any
semblance Of punishment is meted
out II is o. character generally IN the
form of fine or short Imprisonment,
which the company enters up ON lis
ledger 10 the account of The accident
at Rio" or wherever IL may have oc-
Cured. But If two traits attempt the
wsll.worn aud unpardon'ble expert
ment OF trying 10 pass on the same
track; II an open switch turns lriin
WITH its precious freight of human
lives out in jumbled heap on the
open ground; IT weak bridge drops
thirty or more persons into eternity in
the twinkllng of an eye. surely some
one il to blame aud surely some one
should be roundly punished for the
criminal negligence that resulted In the
slan hler. But where can the respon.
sibility be fixed? The president 0f the
railroad company Is grieyed beyond
measure, and has frequently been
knosn 10 ride out in special car with
a few friends TO look at the dead and
wounded aud exhibit his sympathy;
the directors try TO be temporarily oh.
livious of any connection 0f the road
the stockholders resolve upon change
of management, and are pGwerless TO
effect il; the careless or negligent EN-.
ploye shifts the responsibility onto one
or more of the other bits of human
ma ,hineryin the complicated mecban.
ism Of railroading; the whole crowd
deny with one voice; the company
keep information as much rs possible
from the newspapers, discharges IA lot
Of employee, settles up the ci Ill dam
ages on the best terms.that bull.dozlrg z
or caiOlery can effect and goes on with
it, business; the law looks around for
some one to punish, among such a
crowd gives up in dspair. That's the
way 1t works. When the Congress OF
the United states enacts law. saying
that when common carrier ofhumsp
beings maintains bridge that carries
thirty persons into eternity at one
stroke shall be criminally punished in
the perso.s Of its managing officers,
and that all fatalities on railroads not
resulting from the direct negligence of
the person killed or from unavoidable
accident shall b.. similarly amenable
to criminal examination and punish
ment, IL will have done . service to
humanity infinitely greater tam will
ever " shown by the interstate COM
merce law.